Getting our team culture right

Effective workplace cultures make an organisation a good place to work. The National Guardian Office annual report stated that 38.5% of the total cases raised with Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) guardians last year related to inappropriate behaviours and attitudes (The National Guardian Office, 2024). The report highlighted incivility, favouritism, shouting, swearing and belittling. Cultural issues were identified by internationally educated nurses. There were also a number of cases reporting discrimination towards protected characteristics. The annual report goes onto identifying culture as a patient safety issue. The concept of workplace culture is amorphous, so the simple definition of culture of ‘how things are done around here’ (Drennan, 1992) can be used to start thinking about exploring our own workplace culture. Healthy workplace cultures are crucial in ensuring high quality patient care and improved patient outcomes (Braithwaite et al, 2017; The National Guardian Office, 2024).